The Worm King and Other Things

 All the photos I just selected loaded into the post in reverse order. Sigh ... do any of you still have trouble with this new blogger arrangement? I'll just go through them in this order!

I decided it's time to paint some autumnal cards. I was in the mood for ink with my watercolor.

Adam fried shrimp, squash, and dill pickles for dinner the other night. All delicious -- we dipped the shrimp in a remoulade sauce and the veggies in ranch dressing.

Do any of you remember little aprons on the dish soap bottles? I made this the other day. It needs a piece of elastic around the bottom, because it slips around too much when I pick up the bottle.

We found a lovely fabric store in New Bern! I was shocked; I thought it was just for upholstery, but they had everything, and at such good prices! The upholstery remnants were cheap. We found fabric for two more vests for Adam. This wool plaid excited him. The striped fabric will be the back and lining.

This fabric below is for the second vest. It's also wool, and is bluer than it looks in the photo, more the color of the thread.

At the thrift store this week, I found a box of silver plate flatware -- about 50 pieces. I do NOT need 50 pieces of flatware, esp. in patterns I'm not wild about. But I couldn't resist the two sugar spoons (one shown below), the butter/cheese knives, and a few spoons. We're always running out of spoons. They polished up very nicely!

The two patterns involved:

Before polishing:

Tuesday night after Bible study, the sky was this:

I have a fun story to tell. I'm part of a facebook group for beginner watercolor folks. A lady there (British, I thinkk) shared a little painting she did. Her daughter asked her to paint a picture of a worm, wearing a crown, in outer space. So she complied. It was adorable, and all of us liked and loved it, etc. Several people said, "Oh! Worm King looks like he needs to have a story to go along with that picture of him!" The artist said, "I don't have that kind of imagination." I looked at that painting and immediately thought, "I could write a story about that worm in an hour." The painting just BEGGED to have its story told; it was easy. So I told her, and then I wrote it, and then I sent it to her. She was excited about the story of Worm King in outer space (that makes me giggle!), and was inspired to keep painting pictures for the story, and her children love it! She's putting her paintings in a spiral book with the text I wrote along the side of each painting page. I don't know if it will ever become anything, but what's most exciting is that SHE is a truly gifted children's book illustrator (in my opinion -- it seems to come naturally to her), and I think my gifts are more in writing -- it seems to come naturally to me. But we both needed a prompt, a push. Perhaps more artistic folks need to push each other, ever so gently.

(This painting is by Lou Tom. I don't know her full name. But it's her intellectual property, so please do not copy. Isn't he cute?)

When My Writer Brain Was Born

That's my copy of The Sound and the Fury. However, inside the cover my brother Max's name is written. I must've swiped it from him. I have a collection of most of Faulkner's best novels in paperback. In college I studied them, loved his writing, loved his style -- his voice -- and his crazy, disturbing settings and plots. I tried to read The Sound and the Fury in 10th grade and failed; a few pages in, and I was utterly lost. The Benjy section is challenging. By my senior year in college, all his novels were easily accessible and a joy to read. Then I didn't touch them for about 35 years.

Recently I've been bored with my bedtime reading, as I mentioned before. How discouraging! I mentioned this to a friend who sympathized. She said she'd put away her electronics before bedtime and reverted to her tried-and-true method of going to sleep well: she reads Faulkner.

"Faulkner," I thought. "Sounds like an odd sleep prescription, but I have him on my shelves somewhere. I'll give him a try."

I found myself, once again, reading and reading, flipping one page after another, utterly UNbored. Faulkner is still a delight to me for some reason. And pondering my mental love for his writer's voice, I remembered his impact on me years ago -- after I grew accustomed to his voice, his eternally long sentences, his quirky turns of phrase and seeming non sequiturs, his brilliant understanding of the human heart and fearless delving into humanity's darkest moments -- after I could read him with ease, he had a peculiar effect on me.

He made me a writer. By that I mean that his voice awoke a writer's voice in my own head. Rather like a small child hesitantly singing a tune being taught him by a music teacher, gradually my inner voice grew, trying to keep pace with him. Faulkner's not exactly stream of consciousness, but there's a long, luscious flow to his text, like a river, that carries the reader along (after he learns to swim and not drown in it), and for me, this swimming became my own way of thinking stories. Stories are always running through my head. Plot points pop in, characters introduce themselves, stories grow and bloom, but my inner voice is always talking, always telling. I thank Mr. Faulkner for this. Somehow we have voices in tune with each other, and finding his books awakened my own. I had forgotten.

I'm still in West Virginia for a few more days. I finished a large order of cards and will be mailing them out on Monday. So, here are a few more cards I just painted this morning:

If you're interested in viewing the cards I presently have for sale, click here. It's a Google Photos album. If you want to purchase one, just click on the photo, and look for a text box that says, "Say Something." Type a note to me in that box and hit enter. Please note that the price of the cards at the top of the album is $8 each; the cards lower (below the text description) are still $5 each.

The First Cool Morning

That was this morning - I walked out on the back deck, felt the breeze (blowing east from Hurricane Humberto, thank you, Humberto) and said, "Ahh! I survived another horrid summer!"
Yesterday Henny Penny took her four babies out into the big world of the chicken pen for the first time. (Oh, sorry about the Instagram link! But if you click over, I think you can watch it fine.)

View this post on Instagram

Jenny Penny takes the babies out

A post shared by Mary Kathryn Christiansen (@marykathryn.christiansen) on Sep 18, 2019 at 2:00pm PDT

Adam has been working many hours for the U.S. Census, which means I have many hours at home alone in a quiet house, just Beau and I. I love peaceful, productive morning hours at my desk.

 I've learned, after all these years, how to make the perfect little French press of coffee for myself. A candle. Diffuser oil. A little lotta editing.
Before the editing, I paint. My brain's not awake yet, and painting is a good first activity.
A little water, a little paint.

 Writing and editing are much harder than painting. Adam says they're much harder than walking/driving around door-to-door gathering census information too. But we both love writing. When I can't fall asleep at night, I lie in bed thinking through the plot of whatever story I'm at plot-thinking stage in. It helps me fall asleep.

Sunset on Saturday. We are heading into a pretty time of year.

Rain, At Last

Is there anything more depressing than weeks -- months even -- without rain? The baking sun overhead? The parched earth and thirsty plants crying for moisture? I loathe drought and I LOVE rain. Today, it's raining again. My brain is like a wilting plant that revives when the drops start falling.
Enough flowery metaphor about the weather. Here's what we've been up to this morning.

 I'm picking fruit from our two fig trees. This one has been pruned heavily the past 3 years and is now in good shape.

 Our largest rosemary plant has been content in drought.

 I finished weeding my newer herb bed, which was in a horrible state, below. Basil in the foreground, then thyme, and spearmint at the far end. The middle section is seeded with dill and cilantro for the fall.

 This thyme, which is only 2 years old, is quite happy with drought too.

 Another happy plant in the dryness is this clump of Black-eyed Susans.

 Adam hacked down this huge evergreen tree that crowded one end of the front porch.

 Now it wants to stage a come-back. He will dig it out.

 Our only camellia bush suffered from Hurricane Florence:

 She has a few leaves, but we don't know if she'll survive still. We can wait.
Both of my chicks have grown up to be annoying roosters, I'm sad to say. I must choose one to keep, and one to give away to my friend who rehomes unwanted roosters.

 Roosters are a pain. If I didn't like baby chicks, I would not bother with even one rooster.
Finally, Adam torched up his burn pile this morning! Hooray!

 Ned circled the burn pile over and over, watching for critters (especially snakes) to come out so he could chase them. 

I came inside as Adam managed his burn pile, and started working. I'm rereading/editing my "Federal Hill" book, planning for its final chapters. It feels good to immerse myself again into the world of that book, but it's so much effort to do so. It's hard to explain, but making my mind delve back into another world that I've created and flesh out a complicated plot -- that's work. It's kind of exhausting. I needed a nap by 11:00. Now I'm back at it, after I finish this blog post. Meanwhile, the rain is pattering down outside my window.

Adam also came in to edit an interview for a podcast that's to be released soon. 

Fellow bloggers, yesterday I began an onerous and tedious task that I wonder if any of you have done. Back in 2012, from February and June, blogger stripped out all the photos from my blog posts. In their places were blank ovals. This occurred many years ago, and I've grumpily accepted that a chunk of my blog history was photo-less. The pictures were no longer on my phone, and not in Google Photos either. Yesterday I realized that they were stored, however, in my Google Photo Archives (one of the choice options in a blog post when uploading photos) -- IF I was willing to go hunt for them there. Old photos from years ago are stored there in batches of about 900 photos each. It is a hunt, but I succeeded, and I've gone back and re-loaded the correct photos into about half of the damaged posts. Phew! What a mess! It was satisfying, however to "relive" those months. Philip was in college; Anna was in her first year of college. Peter was finishing high school. It includes his graduation. Julia was in 7th grade. Adam and I were planning to move to Oriental, which we did in May. Lots of bee-keeping posts and fun recipes. I'm enjoying this stroll down memory lane.

Work

Adam's and my life seems more lively these days. There's so much going on in the house. I think I showed you Adam's new work station in the dining room.

 He spends much time there crafting his new business for our future, tied to his podcast, BookChats, but also involving writing books and book reviews, publishing articles online, enhancing his Google search status, and generally developing himself as a brand. He's still in the early stages, but doing well, and he's so excited. At last he has work, the success of which is entirely dependent on his own drive and energy. And believe me, he has both in spades right now! He's motivated. If he can turn this into an income, it will enable us to stay here, travel to see kids and grandkids, and still serve the church where we are now, which we love.

What Adam's doing is part of the "gig economy," a growing trend in the U.S. It's more than what we used to call "temp work." It's driven by rising technology and people's ability to access services directly from the provider. Uber and AirB&B are two popular examples. Think "freelancing," but in many areas of life. 

Adam chose books. He's a voracious reader, one of a rare group who are true speed-readers. He's more widely read than your average bear. He can get a free book in the mail from a publisher, read it in a day, and churn out a knowledgeable review a couple of days later. We serve as each other's editor.

My Red Robin Soaps hobby/business is also part of the gig economy. I must admit I'm not as excited about making a batch of soap as I used to be! But people still like to buy it, so I make it. I love the art work I do too.

But moving into the future, it makes sense for Adam and me to support each other in work, and my writing of books flows rather naturally into his growing business. We both want to be writers, although I prefer fiction and he writes both fiction and non-fiction. Figuring out how to publish our books led to the formation of BookChats, as Adam learned about the intricate workings of the publishing world. We hope this will help us become more successfully published in the future. Plus, writing is labor that can be done into one's advanced years. 

Adam finished editing the "Cozy" mystery I wrote recently. We don't have a title yet, but the series will be about a funeral home director who solves mysteries in connection with her job. Right now I'm working on completion of my "Federal Hill" book, a sequel to "Three Against the Dark." While doing that, I'm watching a fascinating series of lectures by well-known fantasy/sci-fi writer, Brandon Sanderson. He teaches a class at BYU on writing, and it's really good. It's on Youtube. I don't bother with boring, pedantic Youtube videos. I don't have the time to waste. But he's engaging, funny, practical, accurate. Oh my goodness, every few minutes I stop the video and jot down ideas in my latest book's notes, so I don't forget the good stuff he's telling me. I highly recommend these videos to anyone interested in fiction writing.

Adam interviewed a writer recently (Jay Greenstein) who said (roughly) that one reason he loved being a writer is that you can be gazing out a window, and someone can ask you what you're doing, and you can reply, "Working." And it's true. That's some pretty awesome gig work! It's a little nervous being in charge of one's own economic world, but it's exciting too. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

Writing Plans

Hello, friends! It's the heat of summer now and time for me to sit in my study with a fan blowing and gaze into the pasture. The dogs are lolling in the shade. The chickens are taking dust baths. I'm writing.

It feels so good to be writing again. I know writers say this all the time, but those dry, dusty periods when words don't come (or we don't let them come) are so discouraging. You wonder if you'll ever create something again. These times of fruitful productivity feel like spring, like a waterfall, like joy.

What am I writing? Here's the plan:

The Mortuary Murders - a series of books (I hope) set in a small Southern town. The first-person narrator is a brand-new funeral director, a woman. These books will be "cozies," quick, easy reads. Beach books. I'm over half-way through the first one. I'm writing about a chapter each day, trying to get the story out of my head and onto paper. Then Adam and I will go back and edit.

Three Against the Dark - This book is old history, but Adam has reread it and is jump-starting it again with lots of platform and support this fall. 
Ten Days at Federal Hill - Its sequel. My next project after finishing "Mortuary Murder #1" is to finish this sequel and get it tidied up. Publishers (if we decide to go that route) like series, so I'll need to have a second book to offer them, and promise of a third. The overall plot certainly lends itself to that.

PICTURE BOOKS - Punkin and the Littlest Mouse is done; The Thanksgiving Mice is done; The Rescue of William Shrew needs ten more illustrations painted. I have a Christmas story in my mind that I want to complete by December. I have one or two other story ideas in mind for this book cluster.

Greenfield Civil Wars - Another finished book that lends itself to sequels and could also be considered a bit of a "cozy." I started a sequel but didn't continue with it. 

Poetry - I have lots of poetry, and some of it (I think) is good enough to gather into a small book for publication, if I already had other books selling well. It would be easy to put together a little book for this purpose.

Doing all this, especially the daily commitment to writing each morning, makes me feel like a writer. I want to be a writer, to use that skill, to leave these stories in the world. I'd never considered how important it is that those who are story-makers should tell their stories, give them to others who want to read stories. I assumed most people thought up stories in their heads all day long -- what did anybody need my stories for? Apparently most of the population don't write stories in their heads all the time! If a person has the ability to create stories and the skill to put them into well-written text, that person has an obligation (I think) to write for others.

We'll see. But that's the plan! Now I must go finish Chapter 14 before lunch.

Getting Back to Work

No ... that doesn't mean I'm clocking into a 9-to-5 job somewhere. Sadly, my legs are no longer up to that. But it does mean that I'm back to painting and writing! This book is finished now:

If you'd enjoy a read-aloud of "The Thanksgiving Mice," here's a youtube video I did today. However, my nice camera acted up, and the video ends at page 23. So you'll just have to wonder how it ends, haha! 

As with my other little book, this one will be for sale. But I have to get it printed first, which is always the trickiest part for me. It will cost $10, just like the last one (same number of pages), which includes shipping inside the U.S.

What am I painting now, you ask? Well, Philip and Kara gave me those lovely paints and that lovely watercolor paper for my birthday. He told me, when I complained about lacking ideas to paint, that I should paint something to hang on the wall in the nursery someday, when they have their first baby, which is not happening yet. I don't want to start any false rumors. But still, I thought that was a pretty fun idea!

Immediately I thought how neat it would be to have a framed collage of characters from my little children's books, for my grandbabies to look at. It would remind them of all the farm animals they love from Nana's (that's me) books! I started with a rough preliminary sketch.

I'm sorry it's so pale. I didn't want to launch straight onto that high-quality watercolor paper without first roughing it out. Six blocks, five containing farm animals, and the sixth one saying "Red Robin Farm."

I started with Bernie. I know, I chopped his tail off. Well, it's for grandbabies, and they are forgiving, right?

 I proceeded on to Priscilla the Squirrel. (I haven't thought up her last name yet.) She figures in a love story I'm writing now, a somewhat one-sided love story.

 And Ned. He is in love with Priscilla, you see. An ill-fated attachment.

I have Punkin and Mrs. Mouse yet to paint, but they will be easy. Then I'll do some touching-up and finishing with backgrounds and probably some rick-rack to divide the boxes. Should be fun!

We exited wedding weekend straight into a death and funeral in our church, our oldest member and much-beloved. Plus many other excitements to keep us from settling back into our calm lives. I remind myself, as so many of you often remind yourselves on your blogs, that God has it all in hand, and all will be well. I need that reminder. Thank you for stopping by and putting up with my yappitiness!